433369666-The-Case-for-Investing-in-South-Africa

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MINING AND MINERALS BENEFICIATION
• South Africa is endowed with vast mineral reserves valued at USD2.5-trillion, the most valuable in the world. It
hosts the world’s largest reserves of platinum group metals (PGMs) and manganese, and some of the largest
reserves of gold, diamonds, chromite ore and vanadium.
• The country’s mineral wealth has attracted large capital investments over more than a century, resulting in the
development of integrated industrial value chains that generate significant value-add for the economy to this day.
• South Africa is one of the world’s top mining destinations, with its mining industry rated as the 5 th -largest globally
in terms of GDP. A high level of technical and production expertise, as well as comprehensive research and
development capabilities, have collectively positioned its mining companies as key players in the global mining
value chains.
• South Africa’s mineral endowment supports a wide range of commercial mining production activities, including
precious metals and stones, energy minerals (coal, uranium and thorium), ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well
as other industrial minerals (iron ore, vanadium, titanium, lime, kaolin, silica and granite).
• Downstream beneficiation of primary minerals contributes substantially to socio-economic development. The
country’s minerals beneficiation strategy seeks to optimise synergies and linkages between mineral value chains
to promote economic diversification, focusing on industrial capacity development in energy commodities, the
iron and steel value chain, the titanium value chain, beneficiation of PGMs and precious metals fabrication.
• The structure of the mining sector, measured in terms of mineral sales per sub-sector, has become progressively
more diversified over time. Gold’s share declined from 67% in 1980 to 14% by 2018.
• Productivity gains and relative competitive advantages have driven robust growth in mineral exports over the
years. South Africa maintains an absolute advantage in the production of PGMs, manganese and chromite.
PRODUCTION OF TOP MINERALS IN SOUTH AFRICA’S RESOURCES PORTFOLIO
Mineral product
Volumes Reserves SA’s global
1994 2018 Change Volumes ranking (reserves)
Coal (million tons) 196.5 253.3 28.9% 66 700 5 th
Platinum group metals (tons) 183.9 270.6 47.2% 63 000 1 st
Gold (tons) 580.2 117.1 -79.8% 6 000 2 nd
Iron ore (million tons) 30.5 74.3 143.6% 650 12 th
Manganese (million tons) 2.9 14.9 423.2% 150 1 st
Chromite (million tons) 3.6 17.9 370.2% 6 860 1 st
Source: IDC analysis, compiled using DMR data; Reserves according to the 2017/18 SAMI report